Auburn University, November 2002

Dr. Holly Stadler, department head of Counseling & Counseling Psychology, had the opportunity to visit what she considers "the most beautiful place on the planet" in November 2002 as part of a partnership between three United States universities and five universities in the Western Cape province of South Africa.

Stadler said she was invited to participate in this consortium by the vice president for University Outreach because of her familiarity with this part of South Africa and one of the universities there that is a part of this academic alliance—the University of the Western Cape—where she served as a visiting professor for six months in 1991 and 1993. She went to South Africa two other times in the 1990s including being invited to attend and present at the Inaugural Conference of Non-Racial South African Psychological Society in Cape Town in 1994.

Stadler traveled to South Africa with Dr. Royrickers Cook of University Outreach; Dr. Don Terry Veal of the Center for Governmental Services; Dr. Keenan Grenell, assistant provost for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs; Dr. Johnny Green, director of the Center for Diversity and Race Relations; and representatives from the University of Louisville and North Carolina A&T State University. During her fifth and shortest trip to South Africa, Stadler and her companions visited five universities in Western Cape and met with the superintendent of education for the province to assist those in charge of teacher in-service training at those universities.

To understand the depth and meaning of this, one must understand a little South African history, which Stadler summed up nicely.

In the late 1940s, the South African government was dominated by the white race and under this government the apartheid regime began. This policy of strict racial separation was an outgrowth of the colonial policies treating Africans as sub-human, and the government took it a step further by institutionalizing it to the point there were separate hospitals, separate education, separate places people could live and interracial marriages were outlawed. This oppressive rule—which had stark similarities to segregation in the United States before the Civil Rights Movement—lasted until 1994, at which time Nelson Mandela became the first elected president of the new democratic South Africa.

Stadler explained the people of South Africa went through a process called the "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" to deal with the countless number of atrocities committed under the apartheid and by the people fighting against it. This attempt to bring these violent acts to light and reconcile the relationships between the groups is just one example of the hard work going into creating a new society for all South African people.

"But there's 40 percent unemployment in South Africa so part of creating a new society is making an economically viable society too," Stadler said.

That is where education—equal and quality education for all—comes into play and where teacher in-service training becomes of utmost importance.

"Historically education for the indigenous black people was to prepare them to be in service and labor kind of jobs, sort of like everybody in that particular group being prepared to work as a maid in a hotel or a road paver," she said. "So the teachers in the schools for people of color didn't have the same kind of preparation that we normally think of. Some of them had no college experience or a year or two of college experience, so this need for teacher in-service training is very important so that all people can have the education that they need to take advantage of opportunities in the New South Africa, as they call it."

Stadler feels the trip was a success and they were able to leave behind the support those five universities needed for their teacher in-service and education initiatives as well as for the challenges that they face as institutions of higher learning in their country.

"I think we got a clear picture of what the teacher in-service needs are in South Africa and which universities might be able to offer what kind of assistance," she said. "It was a very positive experience to be involved with these five universities, all of whom are very committed to quality teacher in-service and to working together, which is something pretty new in this context because one of the places, Western Cape, was historically the black college and then there's the University of Stellenbosch, which was historically an Afrikaner—that was the group that was responsible for apartheid—and then there were other groups. The fact that they're all talking to each other now and working together in a common goal is very exciting to see."